Mesolithic burials in los canes cave (Asturias,Spain)

Los Canes is a small cave situated half way up the abrupt southern slope of Cuera range, near the village of Arangas (Eastern Asturias, Spain). Three funerary structures have been discovered in the entrance of that cave. They consisted of burials (one of them, number II, reused) where the corpses of three individuals had been placed in different positions, with the legs strongly bent. Various grave goods (animal bones, pierced teeth, a perforated antler, etc.) accompanied them. The individuals found in these burials have been directly dated by AMS. Their age ranges between 6930±95 and 6265±75 BP (5930–5680 and 5330–5010 cal. BC). The present paper describes in detail the burials and discusses the questions raised by their datations and characteristics. Fourthermore the authors compare them with other Cantabrian funerary structures, taken into account the different mesoecological factors and living conditions of these last hunter-gatherer populations. Some preliminary anthropological data about Los Canes individual n^oI are also considered.     

Évolution de l’exploitation des ressources animales dans la région cantabrique entre 4500 et 2000 cal BC : la grotte de Los Gitanos (Cantabrie,Espagne)

The archaeozoological remains found in the four Neolithic and Chalcolithic sub-levels at the archaeological site of Los Gitanos Cave are analysed. Continuity is seen in the exploitation of the marine environment, while the percentage of domestic ungulates, in comparison with hunted animals, progressively increases. Finally, the site is contextualised in an overview of the use of animal resources in Cantabrian Spain from the fifth to the third millennia.     

Subspecies Cantabrian capercaillie Tetrao urogallus cantabricus endangered according to IUCN criteria

The Cantabrian capercaillie Tetrao urogallus cantabricus, a subspecies of the western capercaillie, is endemic to the Cantabrian Mountains of northwest Spain. The range is separated from its nearest neighbouring capercaillie population by a distance of more than 300 km. High genetic differentiation compared to capercaillie elsewhere qualifies the subspecies as an Evolutionarily Significant Unit. An assessment according to the IUCN Red List categories and criteria showed that the subspecies qualifies as Endangered due to rapid population declines, small population size, and severely fragmented range. The implementation of a range-wide recovery plan is vital for the survival of this subspecies.     

Not only Chauvet: Dating Aurignacian rock art in Altxerri B Cave (northern Spain)

The discovery and first dates of the paintings in Grotte Chauvet provoked a new debate on the origin and characteristics of the first figurative Palaeolithic art. Since then, other art ensembles in France and Italy (Aldène, Fumane, Arcy-sur-Cure and Castanet) have enlarged our knowledge of graphic activity in the early Upper Palaeolithic. This paper presents a chronological assessment of the Palaeolithic parietal ensemble in Altxerri B (northern Spain). When the study began in 2011, one of our main objectives was to determine the age of this pictorial phase in the cave. Archaeological, geological and stylistic evidence, together with radiometric dates, suggest an Aurignacian chronology for this art. The ensemble in Altxerri B can therefore be added to the small but growing number of sites dated in this period, corroborating the hypothesis of more complex and varied figurative art than had been supposed in the early Upper Palaeolithic.     

Le comportement symbolique des derniers chasseurs cueilleurs paléolithiques : regard sur l’art rupestre du Magdalénien cantabrique

Between 2010 and 2014, an assemblage of Cantabrian Recent Magdalenian rock art sites was studied. The sample, representative of Palaeolithic art of this period in the region, included a total of 9 parietal ensembles and almost 500 graphic units. The results of this research led to the discovery of a several unpublished figures and reinterpretations of an even larger number of graphic units. Most importantly they formed a body of data large enough to produce statistically significant information. This can be used to define guidelines about the symbolic behavior of the populations that inhabited the Cantabrian Region at that period. In this paper, the main results are summarized, and a brief discussion about the implications of these data in the social and cultural context of Late Pleistocene populations in Southwestern Europe is presented. The conclusions reveal the existence of a rich graphic activity, reflection of complex societies, with large exchange and social networks, including cultural elements within a common realm of ideas, which covered many hundreds and even thousands of kilometers at the end of the Pleistocene.     

New data concerning the evolution of the vegetation in Lillo pinewood (Leon, Spain)

A pollen study of a peat-bog sited in the pinewood of Lillo (León, Spain) is presented. The diagram shows an initial phase where a well-developed pinewood was dominant with deciduous species, followed by a selective clearance process of Pinus . Finally, the pinewood recovers again towards a similar state to that described at the beginning of the profile. Radiocarbon dates point that the timing of peat formation took place around 1720±60 years bp and the deforestation on 780±80 years bp . The results have allowed to explain the autochthonous character of Lillo pinewood, which remains as one of the few relics of the southern slopes of the Cantabrian Range.     

Economical strategies in the Upper Palaeolithic in the Cantabrian region

The aim of this paper is to survey the economic approach in relation to animal use during Upper Palaeolithic times in Northern Spain. The animals present in the archaeological record can be separated into main groups, like those present by natural reasons and those introduced by human groups. Also in the anthropic aported animals, some of them are related to food procurements and others to economic reasons. Animals like deer, bovids, equids and so on, were mainly related to nutrition, while some others like mustelids, canids or felines were more related to the obtention of furs or other non-alimentary uses. The analysis of the “main-six” (red deer, roe deer, big bovids, horse, ibex and wild boar) showed that all of them were used throughout the Upper Palaeolithic without many changes in time.     

Forest and Landscape Structure as Predictors of Capercaillie Occurrence

ABSTRACT Capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus) is a large, endangered forest grouse species with narrow habitat preferences and large spatial requirements that make it susceptible to habitat changes at different spatial scales. Our aim was to evaluate the relative power of variables relating to forest versus landscape structure in predicting capercaillie occurrence at different spatial scales. We investigated capercaillie-habitat relationships at the scales of forest stand and forest-stand mosaic in 2 Swiss regions. We assessed forest structure from aerial photographs in 52 study plots each 5 km². We classified plots into one of 3 categories denoting the observed local population trend (stable, declining, extinct), and we compared forest structure between categories. At the stand scale, we used presence-absence data for grid cells within the plots to build predictive habitat models based on logistic regression. At this scale, habitat models that included only variables relating to forest structure explained the occurrence of capercaillie only in part, whereas variables selected by the models differed between regions. Including variables relating to landscape features improved the models significantly. At the scale of stand mosaic, variables describing forest structure (e.g., mean canopy cover, proportion of open forest, and proportion of multistoried forest) differed between plot categories. We conclude that small-scale forest structure has limited power to predict capercaillie occurrence at the stand scale, but that it explains well at the scale of the stand mosaic. Including variables for landscape structure improves predictions at the forest-stand scale. Habitat models built with data from one region cannot be expected to predict the species occurrence in other regions well. Thus, multiscale approaches are necessary to better understand species-habitat relationships. Our results can help regional authorities and forest-management planners to identify areas where suitable habitat for capercaillie is not available in the required proportion and, thus, where management actions are needed to improve habitat suitability.